Step 7: Primary fementation

Step 8: Aging and Bottling

Your cider has finished fermenting at this point, and is ready to drink. You will get better results, however, if you age your cider for a few months ...

Now that it's fall and the apples are ripe in my neck of the woods (New Hampshire), I thought I'd share a recipe for home brew hard cider. It's a very simple first-time home brew and it's very rewarding. I've never liked the taste of beer or any other alcohol for that matter, but a good cider is hard not to like.

Firstly, this Instructable will explain the process for producing all natural, organic, 100% hand made hard cider, an alcoholic beverage made through fermentation of apple cider.

This is for instructional and educational purposes only and should not be attempted by anyone under the age of 21. State laws may prohibit home brewing in your are. Brewing cider involves the use of active yeast culture, which may cause some food allergies and, as always when home brewing, there is always the possibility of contamination. Sterilize all containers and tools and use only fresh ingredients. And always drink responsibly.

Now that that's out of the way, let me explain the basic process. First you get a lot of apples and juice them/press them, etc. or buy a lot of apple cider (this recipe is for 1 gallon of cider). There are two basic methods after you've procured fresh, unpasteurized apple cider: 1. Put the apple cider into a container with a vapor lock and let the wild yeast that occurs naturally in apples ferment the juice into booze. (This takes a very long time and yields unpredictable results, but if you want simplicity, it doesn't get much easier than this. My instructable will deal mostly with option 2)2. Pasteurize the apple cider with heat or Campden Tablets and then add brewers yeast (champagne yeast works well) with yeast nutrient and put it in a container with a vapor lock (takes less time to ferment and will yield a more stable cider)

In addition, just to clarify, there are 3 primary apple beverages that will be discussed here (not including applejack or apple brandy)

Apple cider - Unfiltered apple juice that contains oxidized pulp, resulting in brown coloration. Comes in many pasteurized and unpasteurized varieties. Hard Cider (Or just Cider) - Alcoholic beverage fermented with yeast from Apple CiderApple Juice - In this country, Apple juice refers to ultra-filtered apple-cider that has been watered down and supplemented with other sweeteners (Such as Motts, Juicy Juice, etc.)

Terminology varies from place to place, which is why it is important to specify.

I have a question for anyone who has experience with this. What's the ending alcohol percentage if you do it from juiced apples, pasteurised? And if I want it stronger can you do another yeast treatment to it, if so how long should I let it sit?

@keith.garner.77 -- What's the ending alcohol percentage if you do it from juiced apples, pasteurized?

I've found from my experience that ending result can be from 3%-8%. its not because the yeast is not doing its job, its because the yeast does not have enough sugar (its food) in the liquid to keep fermenting (or eating) -- so the colonies of yeast either go dormant or die. (from what I've read online.) So adding yeast shouldn't do much of anything except make more 'lees' (the sludge at the bottom of the bucket) when you siphon out, or 'rack' the juice into another bucket.

And if I want it stronger can you do another yeast treatment to it, if so how long should I let it sit?

So here is where a 'Hydrometer' Comes in handy. you should have one even if you're a hobbyist, or just want to start. I tried my first batch without it and i had so many questions about my result i was upset that i decided to skip the purchase. (they're cheap, and you'll use it all the time) -- also make sure you get a 'graduated cylinder' while im thinking of it, if you drop your hydrometer right into your bucket you could be asking for all kinds of off flavors, or could even turn that awesome cider into apple vinegar.. (i hear its good for you.. but not our main focus here)

In order to find out what your end result will be, you honestly need to test the cider juice before you put in your yeast. that reading will give you a very close estimation on to how booze-ish your drink will be.

for example: the hydrometer reads 1.050. drop the yeast in, etc etc.. then when you go to 'rack' it, take another reading. people say cider usually will finish around 1.010 - 1.000. I've let mine sit for a month and its hit 0.980 before.

So to back up, if your original reading is 1.050, and you KNOW its going to hit 1.010 (or you will wait until it does) -- use a handy calculator online: http://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/ and check the result. if you want a higher ABV%, then you need to increase the sugar at the START of your cider, increasing the buoyancy of the hydrometer and giving you a higher starting number.. the higher the starting number, the higher the ALC% will get.

I bet you can rack it, add more sugar, and some B-complex nutrients and more yeast and get it a much higher alc%. i just have not done it myself.

The time that you wait after the fermentation is done is purely for taste.. the balance in the liquid is usually off after fermentation and it takes a while to equalize. I usually taste high acidity at the start, after a week or two it will go away and the sweetness will slowly return. (also google back-sweetening if you need it.)

I'm still a novice at this, and all i have learned is through trial and error and the internets (and you all know how that can be.) -- so if I'm missing something please let me know too!

I greatly appreciate your detailed instructions! My husband and I are making our first batch of hard cider. We purchased bottled juice & cider that only had ascorbic acid added. We are making 5 gallons. We used Star San to sterilize all of our equipment before, and throughout the process. We put the juice in a 6+ gallon plastic sterilized container and added 5 crushed Campden tablets. We let the mixture sit for over 24 hours. The following evening I sterilized a 2 cup measuring cup, then added about 1 cup of water. I microwaved it to boiling, then allowed it to cool to about 100 degrees. I added 5 teaspoons of Fermax yeast nutrient and our package of Cider House Select yeast. I let this mixture sit for over an hour and saw no evidence of the yeast activity. I finally just added it to our juice, stirring it in well. I covered the bucket with the lid (should have paid better attention to instructions not to use the lid just yet) and an airlock. This morning I excitedly went to check on it and.... nothing is happening, or at least it sure doesn't look like it. The juice smells good but there is no visible activity of the yeast. We have the bucket in a closet where the temp is pretty constant at 69.4 degrees. When I realized I shouldn't have the lid on the bucket, I exchanged it for a clean towel secured around the top to keep it from falling in and to keep unwanted stuff out. So, my question is, what do we do now? We had checked with the hydrometer before starting and I checked again today. The reading has not changed. Help! I am afraid we won't get answers quickly enough and our juice will go bad. I don't have any more of the special yeast, but I do have a good supply of baker's yeast. There's a brew store about 20 miles away though if I need to pick up more yeast or anything else. Thank you in advance!

I have been fermenting 3 gallons of apple cider in my basement over winter and now it is time to bottle. This is my first attempt at it. My cider looks lovely and I am just about to pop the airlock. I have reserved 2 litres of cider in the freezer to back sweeten the cider before bottling. To intensify the sweetness of the hard cider, I have boiled down the reserved frozen cider to about half its original volume as to not dilute my hard cider. I hope that will leave me with enough and that the sweetness of my final product will be adequate. My question is, would it be recommended to add an organic apple juice concentrate to my hard cider if needed to sweeten it more? Will the addition of my reserved cider that has been reduced and an organic apple juice concentrate add an effervesance to my bottled hard cider? I don't want to get to technical in the whole process since this is my first attempt as a newbie.

Hi Can someone please tell me how much yeast (grams) is needed for say a gallon of juice? On all the directions I've seen people just say add yeast or add half the packet etc but I can only purchase in 9g sachets so I need to know exact quantity. Please Help?!

lorna.whyte.7: it's not that important to get precise. You just need to make sure you have "enough" if you put too much in, it wont spoil your brew, just waste the yeast. Typically though, yeast packets are sold in 5g packets (dry) or several oz for liquid yeast. That liquid yeast though generally has some sort of yeast nutrient or activator, which would add to the weight. If you're doing one gallon, you'd only need 1/5 of the packet - so if you're using dry yeast typically about 1g would do fine. Almost all of the homebrew yeasts are sold to pitch into 5 gallon batches. So read your yeast's directions, and if in doubt pitch the whole packet. Worst thing that can or would happen is that you'll have some extra sludge at the bottom that you'll need to be careful of when racking.

A couple of suggestions. Getting rid of the natural yeast is definitely recommended. Results are far more predictable. I'm not a fan of cooking the juice (in effect - pasteurising) as the flavour can change. As the wild yeast is only on the outside of the fruit, it can be removed by sterilising the apples before crushing. For all my brewing sterilisation I use a solution of 3 to 5 grams of active chlorine per litre. Liquid pool chlorine is usually 125g/l, so use algebra to work out how much you will need depending on the quantity of your solution. Should only need an hour or so, then briefly soak in CLEAN cold water to remove any residual chlorine solution. Yeast starters are a winner. A good method is 100grams of dried malt extract and 1/4 teaspoon of yeast nutrient per litre of water. Boil to sterilise and when below about 30 C, place in a suitable container and pitch the yeast. Seal with an air lock. You can use your chlorine solution in the air lock. I usually wait for about 2 days for the yeast to multiply. The yeast will form a sludge on the bottom and this is what you add to your juice. Get rid of most of the liquid above the sludge (by siphon) then swirl the sludge around so that you can pour it into your juice.

So I know this is a rather old post but I thought I would mention this. This is my second year making cider now that I live in the PNW and am surrounded by such great apple and pear trees. Currently working on a 5 gallon batch of apple & pear cider. Anyway, after my first wracking I was curious about the sludge at the bottom of my barrel, which smelled really, really good. So I decided to turn it into sourdough starter. So I mixed about 4 cups of the stuff with some extra durbinado sugar, whole wheat flour, dark rye flour, some spices and a little white flour. Covered the container with plastic wrap and then a towel and left it for two days by my wood burning insert for a bit of warmth.

I ended up with a nice, fragrant, bubbly mass that I then used to make two loaves of bread with. The bread is amazing and didn't need any additional yeast for rising. It's dense due to the mixture of flours (again mostly whole wheat and rye..but wow..and it's amazing with some pear butter I made last month. So don't toss your sludge! :)

Ya know, I've never thought of using it for a sourdough starter. But there's absolutely no reason it wouldn't work. It would be very interesting to see what the difference would be in the same recipe using a normal sourdough starter and the leavings from a brewing effort. I've got a couple 3-gallon test batches of cider about to be racked, so this is the perfect day for me to have read this comment. Thanks :-)

Good info, have a press made hard cider ummm 7 years or more... if you like it sweet like said in brewers techno terms some what.. When fermentation is complete then pasteurize (maybe again).. pasteurize fresh press cider, add it to the hard cider.... mmmm not so dry any more and you have more of the cider taste. Or use any other type of sweetener (sterile) after pasteurized fermentation. Farmer-T

Apple Jack! And a correction to my previous post(checked my notes). For the 2- 5 gal. batches of hard cider made from the Mac's we used 3 lbs. of brown sugar. In the 5 gal. batch of cider made from Jonathans we used 2 lbs. We racked all of it a week and a half before Christmas and added Super Kleer KC clarifying agent. The cider clarified very well to a beautiful amber. The Jonathan batch ended up at 7.5% ABV and the Mac batches at 11.75%. We bottled and labeled the Jonathan batch for Christmas presents.

Last night the temperature dropped to -8 so we decided to try making apple jack from 2 gallons of the 11.75% batch. We set it outside in a stainless steel kettle. This morning I skimmed off the ice and the volume was reduced to 1 gallon. I didn't do an SG check, but I assume the ABV is now around 24%. The taste is excellent. You can tell it has a high alcohol content, but it is very smooth, but I also enjoy good bourbon and single malt scotch, so it might not be to everyone's liking. Just another thing to try if you live in a cold climate (or have a freezer). Apparently apple jack was common in the north country during colonial times!

I used these instructions for my batch of cider (2 1-gallon jugs) with these exceptions: Used organic apple juice (no preservatives) and a Nottingham beer yeast. I'm trying to get more of a sweet, beery cider than a high ABV apple champagne. My beer-brewing buddy suggested "crashing" (refrigerating the brew to stop the fermentation) after about a week, then racking it for another week before bottling/aging. Any comments?

This is our second season of hard cider making. Last year's batch went so well we decided to do 3- 5 gallon batches this year. Pressed mostly Mac's this year , but some Jonathan's and Jonamac's. Pasteurized at 150 for 45 minutes. Added 2 lbs.light brown sugar per 5 gal. Used 1 pkg. EC 1118 yeast per 5 gal. Started fermenting at ~65 degrees. Starting SG of 1.085. So far so good. Fermentation rate was way slower than last year and after 4 weeks had pretty much stopped. Transferred to glass carboys, SG was ~1.030, or ~6.75% ABV. We wanted to end up with dry still cider at an SG of close to 1, so we added 4 tsp. Yeast Nutrient dissolved in boiled water per 5 gal. It kicked the fermentation into high gear and all the carboys have been bubbling away for a week now. Just wanted to add this comment in case anybody's fermentation stalls halfway through.

Add a simple syrup based on the volume of cider you have, just prior to bottling. Proportions are available in most wine making/brewing guides.... Make sure the bottles and their caps (swing-top bottles work great for this) can deal with the pressure created from the additional gasses produced from the fermentation taking place after the bottling.

Ok, this is my 2nd year of home brew cider. Last year's was delish. I did everything the same way this year except I invested in a 5 gallon carboy and brewed it all at once.

This year it is soooo dry and "alcohol" tasting. I used the same champagne yeast both years plus it was the last pressing of the season...the cider was really sweet! I don't get it? I used 5 lbs of sugar for 5 gallons of cider.

We drank 2 of the 5 gallons over the holidays, it was 4 weeks old and had 2 rackings. It yielded a great buzz w/no hangover but we ended up making spritzers with sprite to really enjoy it.

Is there any way to sweeten it up at this point? It's done brewing (needs to racked again!) and ready to bottle. I'd appreciate any help here! Thank you! :)

Hello Fluffy Mae! I would be interested to know how you did it last year w/o the 5 gallon carboy, since I am struggling to come by such a thing. Did you simply use a smaller volume carboy (something I already have) and adjust the ingredient amounts accordingly whilst keeping the ratio the same, or did you use a different container? Thanks for your help! :)

We have a beer/wine making supply store right here in town, so I guess I'm lucky. I just bought the carboy right off the shelf. It was $35.00.

I'm trying to choke down the last of the brew. :( Soooo dry!

As for my process, I did low heat pasteurization for all 5 gallons. Slow and tedious but better than the Camden tablets in my opinion. To the last 2 gallons of hot cider, I dissolved the 5 lbs of sugar. Let it cool, then added the yeast. Topped w/the airlock valve and watched the "party" start. That's it. Rack it every 2 weeks and enjoy.

I have noticed a number of questions regarding how to get sweet cider versus dry cider. Added more refined sugar (white or brown) is NOT the answer. The issue is whether the type of sugar is fermentable or not and refined sugar ferments completely meaning that there will be no sweetness left after the yeast does its work.

You need to add an unfermentable sugar. When making beer we do this by adding adjuncts that contain sugars that yeast can't ferment. Two unfermentable sugars that we beer brewers us are: Maltodextrin and Lactose. Both will be available in extract form from your local homebrew supplier. The latter, Lactose, will provide a light sweet flavour, akin to what you would taste in milk. You'd want to stay in the 10% range (estimated from your specific gravity readings) and experiment from there. Hope this helps.

The other, and easier way; when dealing with something like apple juice, is to have more sugars than your yeast can digest.

Champagne yeast has a very high tolerance for alcohol, but a yeast with a lower tolerance (a lager yeast, or a kolsch yeast, etc) will go dormant well before you run out of sugars.

When using beer/ale yeasts you will need to use a yeast nutrient (like FerMax), because fruit juices (or honey, if you choose to use it as an adjunct sweetener; when using a wine yeast) don't have the potassium and nitrogen needed to make strong cells in the reproductive (known as "lag) phase.

One easy and legal way to increase the alcohol content to any home made cider or wine is to freeze it. not all of the cider will freeze and what you are able to draw off is mostly a flavored alcohol with a high concentration of what ever sugars are left over after fermentation. What your left with is kind of a poor mans brandy.

I have fermented 55gals of cider in one container- ingredients / 12lbs brown sugar/ 10lbs white sugar/ 96 ozs clove honey/ ( 15 pkg ec 1118 yeast), in the basement at roughly 45 degrees. Started 1/16/2011 done 1/29/2012. beginning pa 15% / ending 2% .( scale 1 to 10) sweetness 4 / dryness 5 / tartness 5 / Alcohol taste 8 / I like the darker flavor with br sugar, I had to add a second batch of yeast to finish it off,( no activity) that's were the other 5 pkg came from out of the 15 pkg. The color is a nice amber, it needs to rest for awhile, I bottled 8gal. on 2/27/2012, This only my second time in a barrel, it's quite a choir moving it. hahaha I would suggest 5 gal. pails, for ease of placement and different recipes if you have the room. I'm a new member, I've enjoyed all the comments of the so many home brewers, keep on bubbling!

I am a first time brewer, and I decided (due to the recommendation of many brewers) to try three micro-batches the first time. Though the suggestion was to use multiple types of apples, we have Haralson trees in our back yard, so I used those for the juice.

After sanitizing the equipment, I filled each of my three gallon carboys with juice from the apples, added 1/2 tsp of pectinase, and a crushed campden tablet, with varying amounts of added sugars (as per other suggestions online).

Question 1: After I added the campden tablets, I covered the carboys (sealed); campden tablets release SO2, which is what kills the microbes. . . was I supposed to not cover them during this step?

I did not check the pH/gravity of the solutions, as I did not have pH strips, or a hydrometer.

After 2 days, I pitched the yeast (using a Wyeast sweet mead/cider yeast) into each of the 3 containers, after letting it sit for 3 hours (as per instructions) and confirming (by inflation of the bag) that it had been activated.

By the next morning, container C was bubbling at a noticeable rate (about 0.2 hz bubbles), while the other two had no pressure differential (as noticeable per an S airlock). After another day, I pitched additional yeast into both A and B, and waited a day to check them. (at which point C was at about 1 hz bubbles)

A day after the additional pitch, B has started bubbling at a rate of about 0.01 hz (almost unnoticeable) and A has yet to move.

Question 2: What could be causing A or B from taking the cultures?

(A few notes: I pitched C first from the premade packet, which was made to treat 6 gallons, then B, then A;though I had shaken the packet of Wyeast yeast, it sat for about 50 seconds before I pitched it;the packet included nutrient for the yeast;As I stated before, the S airlocks were in place immediately after the campden tablets were added;My concerns were mainly that maybe SO2 was still in the environment when I pitched, and that maybe either the yeast or the nutrient in the packet was not evenly distributed through A, B, and C, though an even amount was delivered from the packet to each, due to quick separation (I haven't looked into their relative densities, or anything))

You will notice you added 1/2 cup extra of the brown sugar to batch A, The higher levels are retarding the yeast form conversion, add a yeast hulls or some other yeast nutrient to give them a better chance.

A note: During the original pitch, though I did shake each jug, the locks were still on when I did this. I removed them only momentarily to pitch the yeast, after which point I replaced them. During the second pitch, I removed the airlocks, and shook them for about a minute each.

I had some of that expensive Martinelli's cider, and added yeast a while back. It sat and sat. I thought it would be spoiled, but it was par with a $1200 bottle of wine a friend smuggled into the USA back in about 1983. I am OK with some high end beer, but think most alcoholic beverages are awful. I got a cap crimper years ago at a Goodwill store when I was trying to brew beer. The cider turned out great. I was unsure if it had done it's thing, was rotten, or good. My dad had died a couple weeks before, and he knew more about what was going on with it than I did. It tasted so sweet, and not much of the alcohol yuckiness was there if any. After about 20 fl oz, I was ready for bed. I did wake rather hung over. I only drink maybe every year, or two. Sometimes I will drink every couple months, but that is the most frequent since about 1995. I guess that makes me a lightweight.LOL. Wilcox Az. grows apples, but they are nothing I would call great. I am in Phoenix Az. I still have my airlock breathers and other brewing stuff. I got about 12% alcohol, and a great tasting beverage. Dad started this small batch. It is sparkling hard cider. Since he is gone I checked this site out. Thanks!

I followed this recipe very well, I thought, however I'm about a week and a half into fermenting and there is no activity in my airlock :( I never had a "vigorous" bubble, or had frothy foam, just subtle movement and a bubble every 5-10 seconds out of the airlocks. Did I perhaps not add enough yeast? Does it ruin the batch to add more activated yeast in now, even though the jugs have been sitting for a while? Any help is appreciated!

I wouldn't fret just yet. My bubble interval went from 12 seconds yesterday to 15 today, after 6 days in the carboy. I think you're doing fine. One thing I did do with this batch was to add 1lb. brown sugar (dissolved in hot water) to 2gal. unpasteurized cider. More sugary goodness for the yeasties. One packet of yeast is good for a 5gal batch. I'd watch the airlock a little longer, and pay attention to the bottom to see if sediment is building up, or if your potion is looking clearer over time. Remember, if you had a good bubble going on for a few days, the potion is in an anaerobic environment. Nothing icky can grow on the surface, TTBOMK. Good Luck!